#terministic screens

Hello again, friendos!

Y’all ready to mcfreakin learn again?

Good!!!

So, have you heard of the philosopher, rhetorician and technophobe Kenneth Burke before?

If not, no biggie. I’m learning about him too. He’s pretty important though. He wrote absolute giggle-fests like  Definition of Man (aka Definition of Human (Gender inclusivity is rad, folks)) and about things like terministic screens.

You probably don’t fully know what I’m talking about yet, but fear not!! I’m gonna explain. I’m also gonna use Roxane Gay’s Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body to help me explain parts of Burke, especially the terministic screens bit.

So, let’s start!

Burke’s definition is pretty basic, so we’ll start there. There are five parts, beginning with

1) Symbol User: This is the most important one to Burke, bc he saw that humans create their reality using symbols and that we use symbols more than anything else, making everything we do and say symbolic.

2) The Negative: Negatives do not exist in nature, therefore humans developed the negative with our symbol systems and learned our morality with the negative.

3) Separation of Human from Nature by Tech: Burke did not like tech much, believing that the unknown consequences of tech outweighed the advancements.

4) Hierarchy: Humans are drawn to the organization of a class system, but agreed with Karl Marx that it this was also the source of disagreements and war.

5) Rotten with Perfection: Too much of a good thing, amiright people??? no? okay. Well, actually, yes. Motive is not present in nature, other than the one for survival, so what drives us? Being better, of course. This is… problematic though. We may get a lot of progress done in our strive for perfection, but we out ourselves and others in a lot of danger while on the path. Burke used the example of Nazi’s and their goal for a ‘pure race’(fuck nazis). They murdered millions of people for their goal of perfection (again i say: fuck nazis).

So… that’s what it means to be human, according to Burke.

Let's talk about it! I’m gonna use Gay to help illustrate now.

Symbol: What do you think of when you hear the word ‘police’? How about the word ‘work’? What thoughts come to mind when you think of those things? Perhaps donuts? Police brutality? Pigs? Heroes? Or maybe, for work, you think of monotonous, dream job, money, boredom, capitalism, ‘getting this bread’, etc. See how every word means something more than just it's basic definition? Everything has a weight to it, a different complex meaning, and it can change from person to person. We live different lives, giving different meanings to the same things. Pretty cool, right? This is pretty much what terministic screens are too, the way we hear words and their divergent individual meanings and the way we can use them to communicate better. This can be negative though, my friend.  

More on terministic screens before we move on!

Two kinds: Scientistic & Dramatistic

Scientistic is the actual definition of a word, describing what it is and isn’t.

Dramatistic is the action that guides the taken meaning of a word, so context and current meaning in the moment.

Now back to your regularly scheduled content (lol as if i has a schedule) (i cri)

2. Negative: Roxane Gay writes in her memoir Hunger, “Sometimes, people who, I think, mean well like to tell me I am not fat. They will say things like, ‘Don’t say that about yourself,’ because they understand ‘fat’ as something shameful, something insulting, while I understand ‘fat’ as a reality of my body. When I use the word, I am not insulting myself. I am describing myself”(201).

Sometimes we give basic words negative meanings, like fat. Fat is not inherently bad, but we treat it as such. Diets, doctors, offhanded comments, lack of accommodation in public and in fashion… Being plus size is not easy, especially when you reach past a certain size. The negative connotation of fat is deeper than just a linguistic meaning, it's embedded in racism, patriarchal ideals, and economics but language is a part of the issue. Our morality and ideals are sculpted by the language we use. If we use certain words in a nicer way, they gain nicer definitions and vice versa. Language and morality are constantly changing.

3. Separation of humans from nature by tech: Yeah, I’ve not got much to say for this one. I love tech. Running water? A+, my friends. Electricity? Heck yeah. Sorry, Burke. Yeah, there are issues with tech, but we are benefitting from it far more than we would without it, in my opinion.

4. Hierarchy: Gay has to deal with a lot of b.s. from assholes who think they are better than her because she is a queer, POC, fat woman. Online trolls target her, strangers make rude comments, all because people often judge her based on appearance alone instead of actually taking the time to know her. Humans can be jerks. We are often looking at others to see where we rank among them, conscious or otherwise. Sometimes it's about size, like with Gay, or it's on a much larger scale like religion or race. This hierarchy drive causes a lot of problems, but don’t worry! We can work together to make this better. When you find yourself judging someone on trivial stuff like looks, stop. Take a second to recognize your thought. Then correct yourself. “I know nothing of my fellow human being over there. I don’t know what kind of person they are. They could be the nicest person on the planet, but I’m afraid because of the way they look/worship/love? Heck nah, self. We’re gonna be kind today. We’re gonna wish that person well.” Judge people by the words they say and the actions they take. Are they tolerant, kind, funny, sweet, etc? Neat! Are they a raging jerk who hates for the sake of hatred? Gross!

5. Rotten with Perfection: There is no such thing as perfection, not for humans if we follow the sophist train of thought. We are inherently flawed beings, beautifully so. Unfortunately, we really love the idea of perfect and are often working towards perfection with little regard for our own or others safety. Burke’s example of the Nazi’s was useful, but we can relate this to Gay too. Gay developed an eating disorder for a while, like many people, and while her ed was not the usual, it still was. Many people starve themselves in the hopes to reach some standard of perfect beauty they feel they either aren’t at yet or hope to maintain. There is no such thing as perfect beauty. There is no such thing as perfect. Not here. Not for humans. And that’s okay. Our goal to improve the world for each other is good. Our goal to improve ourselves is good too, as long as we do so in a healthy way, not by starving or harming ourselves. Improve your relationships with the people in your lives, with yourself. Take your time. Seek assistance as needed. You’ve got this. We are perfectly imperfect and it’s wonderful.

Yup! That’s all I’ve got for this one. Message me if you see something that looks incorrect or if you have a question! I may not have the answer right away, but we can figure it out together. Until next time, check out Kenneth Burke’s work and Roxane Gay’s.

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Sources:

“Definition of Man.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 26 Aug. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definition_of_man.

Gay, Roxane. Hunger: A Memoir of My Body. HarperCollins, 2018.

“Terministic Screen.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 21 May 2017, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terministic_screen

My guiltiest of guilty pleasures: Romantic Comedies. Not that I’m guilty about my love for Romantic Comedies (though being male, society would probably like if I were guilty). Almost all big name Romantic Comedies prior to 2016 (or even earlier) typically followed a strict guideline in terms of how their stories progressed. Not only that, but they typically followed a strict guideline regarding their character’s gender, sexuality, and race. That shouldn’t be a problem for most individuals. I’m not most individuals, though.

I’m the big G word.

I’m gay. I’m not only gay, but I’m hella gay. I’m a hella gay boy who grew up watching hella heteronormative movies who made great sweeping claims about romance and love. Not only is there a lot to unpack in terms of how that idea of love portrayed in media emphasized toxic masculinity, but there’s plenty to unpack in terms of what the media portrayed on who can love: white, cis-gendered, straight couples. I am only one of those things (one and a half if you wanna be pretentious about my mixed heritage).

I’m not salty about it, though. I’m kind of salty. If I think really hard about it, I’m really salty, so I try not to think about it too hard. I am, however, not salty about Chris Evans in any of these movies because Romantic Comedies introduced me to what a man he is.